Friday May 2, 2008 MYT 9:44:03 PM
Cops investigating Raja Petra under Multimedia Act (update 2)
By LOURDES CHARLES and KULDEEP SINGH
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamaruddin is being investigated under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 and Section 4C of the Seditious Act for an article he wrote recently titled Let's send the Altantuya murderers to hell.
It is learnt that eight police officers from the Federal Commercial Crimes Investigations Department (CCID) visited Raja Petra’s house in Sungai Buloh here at about 9am on Friday.
They seized a laptop and a CPU (central processing unit) before leaving at about 11am.
Raja Petra was summoned to the Federal Commercial Crimes Investigations Department (CCID) department at 4pm Friday after initially being told to report there at 11am Saturday.
He was allowed to leave at about 6pm after he refused to give a statement on the article he wrote and posted on the Malaysia Today online news portal on April 25.
His lawyer William Leong, who is also the Selayang MP, accompanied him.
More than 20 people including his wife and Wangsa Maju MP Wee Choo Keong, who was disallowed entry into the CCID building to see Raja Petra, waited outside the building and cheered when he walked out.
Speaking to reporters outside the department building, Raja Petra said that he was summoned to the department to give a statement under Section 4C of the Seditious Act for the article that he wrote in his blog on murdered Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu.
He said that the police officers were trying to persuade him for two hours to give a statement on the article.
"They told me that they wanted to take down my statement but I told them that I refuse to answer any questions or for my statement to be taken.
"I also told them that this is the fourth time they are calling me to give a statement under the Seditious Act where the first one was in 2001, the second in November 2004, the third when (Rural and Regional Development Minister Tan Sri Muhammad) Muhammad Taib lodged a police report at the Dang Wangi police station in 2007 and this is the fourth time," he said.
Raja Petra claimed that the police told him that they would arrest him if he refused to give a statement as they were supposed to question him under Section 112 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
When asked why he had refused to give a statement, Raja Petra replied, "Because this is political prosecution. I refuse to play their political game.''
He also said that the police officers had refused to reveal the name of the person who had lodged a report against him.
"They only told me that it was a police officer,'' he said.
When questioned whether he would need to be present at the CCID department at 11am Saturday, based on a notice served by the police officers who had gone to his house Friday, Raja Petra replied, ''I don't know. Maybe they will charge me for refusing to make a statement and arrest me,'' he said, adding that the laptop and CPU which were taken away by police officers earlier Friday were not returned to him.
Under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998:
1) A person who
a) by means of any network facilities or network service or applications service knowingly —
(i) makes, creates or solicits; and
(ii) initiates the transmission of,
any comment, request, suggestion or other communication which is obscene, indecent, false, menacing or offensive in character with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass another person; or
b) initiates a communication using any applications service, whether continuously, repeatedly or otherwise, during which communication may or may not ensue, with or without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any person at any number or electronic address,
commits an offence.
2) A person who knowingly
(a) by means of a network service or applications service provides any obscene communication for commercial purposes to any person; or
(b) permits a network service or applications service under the person 's control to be used for an activity described in paragraph (a),
commits an offence.
(3) A person who commits an offence under this section shall, on conviction,be liable to a fine not exceeding fifty thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or to both and shall also be liable to a further fine of one thousand ringgit for every day during which the offence is continued after conviction
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